Ar-i Ta-ora
"Sometimes, it takes a little bad to create an even greater good." ~Emperor Li'thar Tharen The First Ann'mui Emperor A Pure Ann'mui male, standing seven feet, six inches tall, Ar-i made for an extremely imposing figure in any circumstance, reputation as a nigh-unstoppable juggernaut of lightning and relentless physical strength aside. Despite not being the strongest being in the Force, especially in comparison to his rivals, such as Er'can, the lightning Ar-i controlled was something unlike anything the Galaxy had witnessed, and likely will ever witness, capable of incinerating entire armies with minimal effort. Character Summary "Ar-i is the definition of a man with a goal who will go through whatever means to obtain such a goal. In the beginning, he had a noble cause, that being to save his people from the cruel world of Volatara and give them a better life, and we see this in his behavior towards the physical incarnation of Volatara as early as the Clone Wars, when he was still under the guise of a Jedi, often physically displaying his disagreement with her. As Ar-i develops himself, his goals remain the same throughout, but the methods he is willing to use in order to save his people grow increasingly more dangerous as he immerses himself in the Dark Side. The final result is a man that has established the Ann’mui as rulers of the galaxy, but has also gained the reputation of a ruthless and cruel dictator in the process. He has committed countless acts of evil against various people, yet he still believes that what he is doing is right. This is where the well known philosophy, 'Good and bad are but matters of perspective,' comes into play. Having grown distant from the care he once had for the quality of his actions, he uses this philosophy to justify his behavior that would otherwise be considered irrational. And yet, he remains firm in belief that he can become a savior for his people. As such, Ar-i is the prime example of a 'heroic' villain, as contradictory as that sounds. If one were to take the cloak of evil acts shrouding Ar-i’s reputation off of him, they would see that deep down inside, he started out as a man that only had the best of intentions for his people. However, through poor execution tainted by the Dark Side of the Force, he ultimately failed to follow through with them. Although to most, good and bad are defined opposites, Ar-i saw it differently, and this could be because he was an embodiment of both to a varying degree. He was the mixture of a thoughtful and benevolent goal with an evil and vicious character, which resulted in him tipping the scales away from the likelihood that he could truly be considered a hero because that goal was overshadowed by his malicious acts. Despite his destruction after all of the conflict settled, it could still be suggested that Ar-i did in fact expose his people to the rest of the galaxy, but he did so at the cost of tainting their image to an extent, causing many in the galaxy to be wary of the years that are to come." ~Summary courtesy of Brokenkeyboardmonkey Historical Summary Pre-Reign Born forty years before rise of the Galactic Empire to an unknown mother and father, Ar-i, from the beginning, was dreaming big. Even from the peaceful Cliff City, he could see the suffering of the Ann'mui, and yearned to put a stop to it. After training rigorously for years, and struggling his way through the most difficult Rite of Passage in Ann'mui history, he discovered his unusually potent lightning, which, even then, was powerful enough to burn a hole through the thick volcanic face of Tirvahal Iriz'a. Upon this revelation, he stopped his combat training entirely to focus on perfecting it, which led to advancements in his Force abilities years ahead of his peers. With plans for the creation and growth of his personal force for justice, the First Galactus, well underway, at the age of twenty three, he, his brother Es-ven, and a large party of other prodigious Ann'mui were sent on a shuttle to Ryloth. On the journey to the planet, he first met Ideri Araxai and Xerevis Te-ana. Both Ann'mui were skilled and powerful in their own regard, and, thinking it was more a club, or group, were the first outside the Ta-oran Cliff City to join the First Galactus. Shortly after landing on the Twi'lek homeworld, he met his future wife, the Sith Apprentice Antara Ri'sega. Despite not having the natural physical strength of an Ann'mui, she was still capable of overpowering Ar-i, and came out on top of multiple encounters, before Ar-i gave in, surrendered, and was led to a distant enclave in the mountains. Within the enclave were a group of two Sith, who had become interested in his power, and they offered to teach him. He declined, not trusting them, until he realized it could further his goal, and, begrudgingly, accepted. From then on until he left Ryloth on a shuttle to Coruscant, he would train under the Sith, becoming a true force to be reckoned with. He and Antara quickly became extremely close, eventually ending in an improvised, yet quaint, wedding, within the cavern. From the emotion, however, truly spurred Ar-i's descent into the Dark Side. Es-ven could sense the rising darkness, and change within him, and slowly grew distant from their shared dream of the First Galactus, eventually severing his ties with it within a week of departing for Coruscant. Seeing this as a personal betrayal, Ar-i began ignoring Es-ven, only interacting with him if the situation were desperate, or furthered the First Galactus' development. Under the tutelage of the Jedi Order, Ar-i was finally able to contain his mind, weaponizing his focus in the form of yet more powerful lightning, capable of melting even the most heat-resistant of materials. This was used to reforge the twin Ann'mui Warblades he was given upon leaving Volatara, in combination with cannibalized technology from his Jedi lightsaber, into his infamous katana-like lightsaber. From under the Order's nose, Ar-i sneaked credits, supplies, and even soldiers to the growing First Galactus in the form of his personal legion of Clones: The 665th. Trigger, the captain of the 665th, was no Clone, but rather, an Ann'mui smuggled in personally by Ar-i. Though not Force-sensitive, she was incredibly strong, and determined, willing to fight to the end, regardless of the situation. Shortly after the start of the Clone Wars, Ar-i, accompanied by a special operations division of the 665th and Trigger, met with the Confederacy of Independent Systems on Mustafar, and ordered the construction of his flagship, the Dark Lance, in return for fortune and protection from all enemies upon their rise to power. In 20 BBY, Ar-i led the 665th in a passive-aggressive takeover of the planet Takodana with fewer than one thousand total casualties planetwide. The Jedi Order took notice of missing Jedi, captured or killed in the takeover, and sent Es-ven, along with his legion, the 664th, to investigate. Despite being desperately outnumbered, the extremely well-trained 665th were able to overcome their counterparts, even against 501st reinforcements. Es-ven himself came down by shuttle later in the day, bringing his daughter, Imi, with him by order of the Council, to face Ar-i personally. After some short negotiations, Ar-i remained stagnant, not surrendering to the Republic's demands, and was forced to defend himself. In the end, Ar-i's outrageous power earned him the victory, but not without the cost of the iconic, jagged scar across his face, dealt by a glancing slash from Imi's lightpike. From that point on, Ar-i severed all ties with the Republic, and embraced his role as the Emperor of the First Galactus. Shortly before Order 66, and the end of the Clone Wars, Ar-i followed a familiar presence in the Force to Coruscant, where he reunited with Antara. Against his better judgement, she suggested mindtricking their way into the Temple, as she had always longed to see it. The plan went flawlessly, until the wing they had been walking along was bombed in a terrorist attack that remained unsolved, even after the rise of the First Galactus. In the bombing, Antara was crushed under hundreds of tons of rubble- Dead before she knew what happened. Her death broke Ar-i mentally, completing his fall to the Dark Side, and, with a torrent of lightning, he warped away to Mustafar. Following another duel with Es-ven and Imi, and a month of mysterious events in a cave that ended in the releasing of Ar-i's Clone, Ar-i himself immediately began to reform the First Galactus into a more militaristic functionality from the shadows, letting the clone terrorize the Galaxy to give him time to plot in peace. Five years later, with the Dark Lance ''having finished construction, Ar-i was once again met by C'ei Lodoi Volatara. However, unlike the previous encounter, Ar-i had learned to focus beyond the Force Ward cast by the Ta-oras aboard the ship, and mercilessly overpowered her, eventually taking her as some form of trophy, and a pit bull to unleash upon anyone unfortunate enough to annoy him. For years, he sat, waiting for the perfect moment, before finally, with the fall of the First Order, he ordered the invasion. Reign To quote the Chiss Ascendancy's historical archives, the First Galactus, led by the violent and warlike Ar-i Clone, "Came in like a rolling tide". Within their first year, they had conquered over half the Galaxy, and showed no signs of stopping, until the Resistance rose up to fight back, as it always does. Only, unlike the previous two times, the First Galactus utterly annihilated the Resistance. There was no Death Star for them to destroy, and no Mary Sue to save the day. By the end of the third year of their takeover, however, they began encountering other Ann'mui, who had allied with the Resistance. The clashing power eventually whittled down to a final fight over Yavin IV, which resulted in the death of Ar-i's Clone. The power cascading from the death of a vessel so powerful seared half the planet and launched it into an ice age from the ash and dust cast into the atmosphere. The power slowly returned to Ar-i over time, who now left the Resistance to question why the First Galactus still fought on until he was back in fighting shape. He revealed himself another year later on Geonosis, in the infamous arena that saw use by the Jedi Order's biggest names oh-so-many years before, where he first met face-to-face with the Resistance's leaders, among whom were Es-ven's daughters, Imi and Lei, and a man by the name of Er'can Ch'lorr. Ar-i was unused to being outmatched, or even equaled, it having been so long since his first encounters with Antera, and Er'can met his power blow for blow. Despite this, however, he managed to come out on top after threatening them and the entire world of Geonosis with the charging of the ''Dark Lance's Ionic Superlaser. He and the Rebellion's leaders clashed frequently- Far too many instances to list. Ar-i focused entirely on training, letting his generals and Admirals, including a young Chiss by the name of Talen'ta'rado, or "En'tar". As the First Galactus slowly pushed the front lines back on the Resistance, Ar-i began to realize the earth-shattering potential of his lightning, and knew, in that moment, his undoing. Regardless of incessant visions of self-incineration, he pushed his body to the limit, building up an extreme resistance to the chaotic storm of plasma that the lightning had become, and achieving the power to incinerate a human being without breaking a sweat. Twelve years before the Second Battle of Geonosis, his daughter, Na-zari, was born, and the life of a father reopened his eyes to his dreams, back on Ry'loth, Coruscant, and even back to Volatara. Not wanting to expose the daughter he cherished to the bleakness of his war, he immediately reformed the front lines, the soldiers no longer advancing, but rather, holding the line where it was stalwartly, eventually ending in an unstable cease-fire across the board. He left monitoring the situation to En'tar, and dedicated his life to training and raising Na-zari. Over time, he eventually sent her off to complete what was assumed to be a simple task: Infiltrate Coruscant and bring Zenka, Er'can's son, to the Lance as a tool to end the war once and for all. Unfortunately, his father's ridiculous power had carried into him, and to compliment it, he bore a lightsaber the likes of which outclassed even Ar-i's. With the multiple combative applications of the Hyper Saber, and a good amount of effort, Zenka was able to overpower Na-zari, and make himself Ar-i's biggest target in doing so. The next few years, Ar-i spent off-and-on training Na-zari, and hunting Zenka and Er'can, his natural affinity for violent rage amplified tenfold by his instinct to protect his daughter. The front lines began closing in, this time, with the help of the Elite Sith, though this move ended in the death of Xerevis, which further enraged Ar-i. However, as the clock ticked down for him and the First Galactus' virtually unchallenged reign, the rage began to subside, and the crushing guilt of all he'd done struck like a wrecking ball. However, the rage resurfaced for a final time following a torturous interrogation of Na-zari by the Jedi Grandmaster, which resulted in the Dark Lance's one and only successful superlaser firing. The weapon was fired at full charge, and it incinerated the top fifteen levels of Coruscant. The Grandmaster was eventually presumed dead, as he did not return, and Ar-i resumed his life, trying to piece himself back together. The war ended in a spectacular fashion. Ar-i and the Resistance leaders met upon Geonosis one final time, and fought with all they had. Despite Ar-i fighting alone against the multiple opponents, his sheer power was enough to keep him going, fighting through slashes, stabs, and blunt force trauma. He whittled the leaders down, incapacitating or downright killing them, until only he and Er'can remained facing each other. However, before they could resume their fight, the Dark Lance, passing overhead, suddenly turned over, the top facing the surface. The superlaser began glowing, and, over an external speaker system Spoilers revealed himself to be a traitor to not just the Resistance, but to the First Galactus as well. He fired the superlaser, but before it could impact the arena and incinerate them all, Ar-i turned to face it, and cast the most violent, torrential, and powerful surge of lightning he possibly could into the beam. The sheer power of it overcame the superlaser, and it tore into the ship's hull, shearing it in half. Sadly, when the smoke cleared, Ar-i had become nothing but ash- Incinerated by his own lightning. Within the ash lay one haunting item; all that remained of the Ann'mui hero: His mechanical left eye. Trivia Did you know? * Contrary to popular belief, Ar-i wasn't necessarily excessively powerful, especially for Ann'mui standards. He was more along the lines of a Jedi Master, rather than, say, someone like Starkiller. What made him such a threat was his determination to survive and, of course, the insurmountable power of his lightning. * Also contrary to popular belief, Ar-i was not the first Ann'mui character introduced. While, yes, being the most infamous and well-known, Xerevis was actually the first Ann'mui to be used in the RP. * Ar-i's strongest physical feat, unassisted by the Force, was ripping the Impure Ann'mui Lei in half at the waist, which required roughly eight hundred pounds of force. (This took me three hours of making my internet history extremely questionable and dealing with Volt's bullshit, so until someone gives me a better number, this is what I'm keeping)